This blog is now dedicated to the praise and promotion of any Ulster County elected official who Votes No for any City of Kingston, County of Ulster, municipal town, or school district budget that increases taxes. This blog will post the NO TAX INCREASE positions and voting records of all Ulster County elected officials. Please ask your local elected officials if they will pledge no tax increases in the budgets over the next few years. Let us know what they say.

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Sunday, December 5, 2010

Mark My Word......Bankruptcy is the only answer.

We have to clear out all of the present municipal union and teacher union contracts and start from scratch. After talking with Mayor Sottile on KCR radio, he admits that it is almost impossible to get rid of "accumulated perks" such as 17 "free" days off in the Kingston Police contract out of union contracts without giving away some other perk. New York State law is so heavily slanted in favor of union leaders and their negotiating position with municipalites and school boards, that there is no chance to correct these problems without a state constitutional convention or with bankruptcy. We cannot wait for a constitutional convention. Therefore, I know it sounds drastic, but I would like to see a domino effect where one city and town after another files for bankruptcy to begin to process of purging the taxpayers of union contract responsibilities.

5 comments:

For those lawyers who do offer the service, it is now more expensive for their clients because it takes more of their time. This means that you will pay more for bankruptcy under the redesigned bankruptcy laws. For example, bankruptcy lawyers now have to personally attest to the accuracy of the information provided by their clients in the bankruptcy courts. This means that they have to take the time to personally research all of the information provided by their clients. The more time a lawyer spends with a client's case, the more that case will cost.

Municipal Bankruptcy is not what it used to be. Municipal Bankruptcy is now a Tool. It is a legal way to get out of a financial death spiral that most New York State school districts and municipalities are in right now. High foreclosure rate and Higher Taxes. The union contracts and pensions are so hopelessly underfunded in NY State that there is no hope for school districts and municipalities to sustain the increasing contracts and pensions. If there is no hope, bankruptcy is the easiest way for municipalities and school districts to RESET and start from scratch on new reasonable contracts and 401k contributory retirement accounts. Believe me, you will start to see bankruptcies very soon.

In NY State, with labor laws slanted heavily in favor of unions, it is impossible to negotiate a good contract. The city could file for bankruptcy now. It does not have to load up a credit card. All the City of Kingston has to do instead of raising taxes, is borrow to the hilt to pay the unions, then file for bankruptcy. Think it through. Unions will not give an inch in NY State. Bankruptcy is the only reasonable way to represent the taxpayers.